Washington Capitals top prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov opened the 2012-13 season with style on Thursday, scoring an empty-net goal in Traktor Chelyabinsk’s 2-0 victory over KHL rival Metallurg Magnitogorsk. But that wasn’t all. Since Kuzya can’t do anything without a tinge of controversy, he decided to celebrate his goal by dropping down in Metallurg’s offensive zone and doing push-ups. For a man who has in the past both canoed and swam down the length of the ice after scoring, this seems a bit reserved for him.

After Traktor’s 4-3 victory over Barys Tuesday, Head Coach Valery Belousov revealed to the media that Evgeny Kuznetsov played sick. Belousov didn’t specify what type of bug Kuznetsov came down with, but with regulars Deron Quint and Raymond Giroux sitting out due to food poisoning, it was pretty easy to connect the dots.

With Fedor Fedin concentrating full-time on Prospect Watch, RMNB needed a new translator. After a few months of searching, RMNB is finally happy to introduce Igor Kleyner. Igor is a native of St Petersburg, Russia, who transplanted himself to the Washington D.C. area around the same time Peter Bondra came to town in the early nineties. He currently works at Nasa and designs electronics for their spacecraft. Yes, another member of the team that can now beat Peter at Words with Friends.